Femi Akomolafe is a computer consultant, writer and a social commentator/critic. Femi and his crew currently produce videos, films and documentaries. Femi lives in Kasoa, Ghana.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

A GOOD TIME TO BE AN AFRICAN

I am probably an incurable optimist when it concerns Africa. But the truth is that Africa is simply too enchanting and so adorable - as has been chronicled by every objective traveler to the ancient birthplace of humans.

The unvarnished truth is that Africa is magnificently beautiful and fabulously blessed. Do not take it from me, just shed your preconceptions and your prejudices and take a trip to the original home of human. The natural beautiful of Africa is simply dazzling, as you shall find out. And Africans are just awesomely beautiful and so full of life – with very wide and beautiful smiles all over the place, no matter what the situation. It is difficult to imagine a Garden of Eden without thinking Africa. As I tell whoever will listen, were Africa to belong to Europeans, no non-European would be allowed in, no matter how long one’s visa is!

Of course the imperialists and their fawning, vile and racist media, are forever touting our wonderful continent as a ‘hopeless’ place engulfed only by famine and wars and AIDS. But is this really so? Is hunger, famine, wars and AIDS the reality one sees in Africa? I don’t think so, but why bother to tell the racist white supremacists masquerading as journalists! But you can as well ask them why all the airlines to Africa are always fully booked, and why it’s difficult to walk on any street in Africa nowadays without stepping on a white toe!

So what is there to make one wax lyrical about Africa? I will tell you. The sheer beauty of the place is just breath-taking, take it from me. In July\August 2007, I took time to explore the southern part of the extraordinarily beautiful country of Ghana. And believe me; I have never so thoroughly enjoyed myself. When I saw the Wli Waterfalls in the Volta Region of Ghana, I thought I’d died and gone to heavens. It is difficult to imagine a more relaxing and beautiful paradise! And as I stroll around the Wli village (cozily enveloped by gigantic mountains) and watch, admire and envy the local citizens of Wli, going about their daily chores with majestic gait – as though with no palaver in the world, I can thank my stars for bringing me to that wonderful village. I surely will go back to Wli, you can bet your last sinking dollar on it. At Wli, I saw human beings living as human beings were created to live. It might appear rustic to some, but for me I would never trade it for the anxiety-laden lives I see ‘civilised’ people living in Europe.

And from the summit of the MountAfadjato (also in the Volta Region), reputed to be the highest in Ghana, I saw stunning views of the surrounding villages and the VoltaLake. I also saw parts of the Republic of Togo – just on the other side of the mountain. The view was simply awesome! The first climb didn’t seem adequate; I went back another day! See my stub on Afadjato on the Wikipedia. At the Monkey Sanctuary village of Tafo Atome (also in the Volta Region), I follow in the footsteps of the locals as they cohabitate peaceful with our Monkey cousins.

At Axim, in the Western region, under a night shimmering with stars, I lolled on the AtlanticBeach and contemplate nature’s great mysteries. At nearby Nkroful, I was humbled by the village and the house that was the birthplace of the great Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah. The KakumNational Park in the Central Region didn’t disappoint either. Walking on that canopy strung up high in the trees is an experience no one is going to forget in a hurry.

Neither is the visit to the Elmina and the CapeCoast castles (both of them also in the Central region). Please, let no one come and keep on insulting me about the Nazi atrocities being ‘greatest crime against humanity.’ That, to me, is pure racist bunkum. If Africans are considered part of humanity, the enslavement of some one hundred million of them, and the death of about thirty million, surely rank, at least statistically, higher than the death of six millions Jews in the Nazi concentration camps, however horrendous that was. See, I still cannot figure the Germans out. How could anyone ever think and plan and construct gigantic industries, dedicated only to the killing of human beings, and the processing of their cadavers? If you ever figure the Germans out, kindly let me know. And the Germans (so-called Aryans) are supposed to be the ideal of a superior race!

The most beautiful sights I saw in my travels were those of ordinary Ghanaian folks doing ordinary things with joy and happiness. Everywhere we went; there were always wide smiles and loud music and varied colors. And the dressings? Mama mia! Among the most memorable images I saw were those of ordinary Ghanaian families sitting around at night, having their supper.Nothing impresses me more than the delightful sights of husband and wife pounding their fufu, (a West African staple) whilst their children go about their plays with carefree abandon. And I cannot help but contrast this with Europe, where life has become so ‘civilised,’ that humans no longer have time to enjoy meals with their family!

When I see the natural beauty of this immensely blessed continent, and see how the beautiful people are willing to welcome one and all (including the historic oppressors of their race) and I compare it with the situation that obtains in Europe, I can only shake my head in wonderment. I also have to give thanks and praises to my creator for making me an AFRICAN! When I see the fuss the Dutch are making about immigrants into their difficult-to-find-on-map real estate, with absolutely no worthy natural beauty of any description, I can only imagine how ferociously the Dutch would fight to deter any visitor were Ghana to belong to them. When I see how a people, whose history would put a society of savages to shame, continue behaving like their barbaric progenitors, I say it’s great to be an African.

Excuse me, but there are also wars and killings in Africa! Yes, we do have wars and certainly, but I did not see Africans going on into the streets maiming and killing people solely on account of the pigmentation of their skin colour like they do in Europe. Oh, they cannot hang us anymore, so it’s only the beatings, the arsons and the tying of the symbolic noose that we have to endure. And these are the masterpieces they holding out to us at the Master Race!

Now, for the reasons that give solid grounds for my optimism about the future of Africa. The most potent argument is the development of consciousness among Africans. The most potent weapon in the hands of oppressor, as Steve Bantu Biko rightly pointed out, is the minds of the oppressed. Gladly, many Africans are waking up to the realization that their destinies are in their hands, and no one is going to fix things for them. Europeans have intruded into our lives and negatively impacted on us by claiming to be our friends. They took sides in our family disputes and unremittingly and remorselessly prolong our agonies. Gladly we now know better. We are no longer as ignorant as our fathers who credited Europeans with a humanity that Europeans neither understood nor deserved.

On The Security Front:

Few years ago, the ever pessimistic scholars of the West were concocting fabulous statistics about how we Africans are going to disappear from the earth – wipe out by wars, famine and AIDS. One of them even imagined the so-called ‘civil wars’ they launched against us spreading throughout West Africa. Gladly, our ancestors were not asleep. ECOWAS leaders saw through the imperialist tricks, and brought the raging wars ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to an end. Today, we have peace in the West-African sub region. And what did we have but for the BBC, the mouthpiece of British Imperialism, to decide in June 2007 to credit their barbaric warmonger of a Prime Minister, Tony Blair, with the achievement of ending the war in Sierra Leone. It is this type of historical distortion and falsification that enable Europeans (a people who should hang their collective heads in shame) to go around the world strutting with the arrogance of a peacock.

Angola is at peace after surviving the CIA-instigated war (hey, don’t hang me, please. Just go and read John Stockwell’s book: “In search of Enemies,” for reasons Angola bled so severely for so many years). Angola economy is now booming; let’s hope that the leaders of Angola will learn from the mistakes of their neighbours in Nigeria on how not to mismanage their country’s economy. Mozambique has managed to survive the apartheid regime-inspired ‘civil’ war and it’s doing Ok, thank you very much.

Sadly, DR Congo, the potentially most powerful country in Africa (given her size and vast natural wealth) still bleeds profusely from the many gnashes of wounds inflicted by foreign corporations seeking her wealth with no intention of paying for it. And the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea are still stupidly rattling their sabers. We hope that they learn from the futility of their previous nasty engagements.

The compelling question Western analysts failed to answer in their numerous comments on the continent is: “Why is it that wherever and whenever there is conflict in Africa, there is suddenly a profusion of arms?” The answer is provided by Bob Marley who wailed in one of his songs: “When you gonna get some food, your brother got to be your enemy.”

And those deriding us as perennial under-achievers always manage not to configure the effect of slavery (let’s forget colonialism for a while) on our psyches. How on earth do you enslave a people for over four centuries without screwing up their minds? Are we also outside psychology the way some Westerners suggested that we are outside history?

The Asians were colonized, Western analysts smugly tell us, but they fail to tell us that Asian societies were not as devastated as Africa was. More importantly, the Asian personality was not consciously wiped out like the barbaric intruders did in Africa. If we Africans are guilty, it is in the failure of our leaders in recreating the African Personality. The job of every liberated African is to help in the onerous battle of the total decolonization of the still lost African minds, and in helping to create the New African - confident and self-conscious, who does not believe in his being an appendage of Europe. In the words of Professor John Henrik Clarke (may the ancestors grant him eternal rest): “Each one, teach one!”

Despite the dire predictions of racist scholars, Africa population continues to grow and they stay healthy, as witnessed by this writer during his travels around Ghana. And incredibly, they are imbued with the same optimism that is the hallmark of the African personality. African Cosmogony thrives on the optimism, and it gladdens my heart immensely that the youth of Africa are blessed with the same optimistic spirit. Do not believe the racist press of the western world, no village or town that I saw in Ghana was dying of AIDS or famine or war. Don’t take my word for it. Just ask the thousands of European tourists having the best times of their lives in that wonderful country. Or, better still, do yourself a great favour and take a trip to the country and enjoy the fabled Ghanaian hospitality.

On the Economic front, Africa is doing incredibly well. Many African nations are registering 7% economic growths – and we are using the western indices here. Nigeria is registering the fastest mobile telephony growth in the world. Ghana has just discovered oil in commercial quantity and many other African nations are also discovering natural resources at breath-taking pace. According to those who should know, the return on investment in Africa is the highest in the world. The Chinese have discovered this, and they are doing serious business in Africa, whilst the children of slavers and rapists and continent-stealers are still, through their media, haughtily denigrating the continent their forebears helped in destroying.

Politically, most of Africa is doing very well as far as democratic reconstruction is concern. Unlike some years back when military mis-adventurists, backed by their western sponsors, were running riot across the continent, today we can count the number of non-democratic states in Africa on one hand.

What then, I repeat, is our problem in Africa? Why do Africans still continue to listen to the negatives vibes of the imperialists’ media – CNN, BBC, FOX (ah!) etc? Only the seriously vision-impaired can fail to see the pace of positive development that is taking place in Africa.

On the last evening of my travel which ended at the fishing village of Kokrobite in the Greater Accra Region, I saw a German girl shedding serious tears on the beach. She was being consoled by two of her friends. On asking, she told me that she’d fallen in love with Ghana. Having spent three weeks, the poor girl cannot envisage going back to the stressful, totally boring, categorically uninteresting and completely anxiety-laden life in Europe. I console her by saying that Africa will still be there should she decide to come back. She shook her head vigorously; vowing to come back ASAP. Of course, the folks at the BBC, DEUTCH WELLE or the CNN (Constant Negative News) will never let you see such scenes.

They come to our beautiful land, enjoy all the hospitalities our marvelous folks can provide, eat and wine to their heart contents only to return to their wretched countries, where people need chemical assistance in order to enjoy life, and start pouring invectives on us. And they do not understand why some of us are firing some salvos back!

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Kaabo \ Welcome

I welcome you to my blog.

As you shall soon find out, I hold very strong opinions and I am never afraid to express them in the strongest terms possible.

As you shall also soon realise, I'm a passionate Pan-Africanist. It goes without saying that I am unconditionally opposed to racism in all its manifestations. I abhor the doctrine that skin colour confers some form of superiority.

While I am prepared to be a brother to one and all, I reject anyone playing BIG brother to me.

You are welcome to my blog; read and enjoy to your heart's content.

Do, however remember that no matter how strongly you might disagree with the opinions expressed here, they are MY OPINIONS to which I am perfectly entitled.

I shall endeavour not to write anything herein except that which is true, factual and verifiable. If you find errors, I will appreciate your bringing it to my attention. I shall try and take note and correct them.

If your intention is to bandy insults around, I advise that you set up your own blog.

As my Yoruba people say: "Oju orun teye fo, lai fara gbara."

It means that the sky is big enough for all the birds to fly without touching wings.